APOCYNUM. X

Apocynum cannabinum, or Canadian Hemp (Nat Ord. Apocynacea), is an indigenous herbaceous plant growing to the height of two or three feet, with oblong-ovate leaves and small greenish, campanulate flowers. The ROOT is the officinal portion; it is of a yellowish-brown color when young, and of a dark-chestnut

when old, has no odor, but a nauseous, acrid, bitter taste. The fresh root, when wounded, pours out a milky juice, whence the plant is sometimes termed milk-weed. It yields its virtues to water and alcohol, and contains gallic and tannic acids, gum, resin, apocynin, apocynein, bitter extractive, etc. Although the entire root

is officinal, the bark of the root is probably alone active. A. androsæmifolium, or Dogsbane, is possessed of much the same properties as A. cannabinum.

Effects and Uses.-Canadian Hemp is diuretic, diaphoretic, sedative, and, in continued doses, emeto-cathartic. It is chiefly employed in the treatment of dropsy, in which its action is often powerfully efficacious. It should be given in amounts just sufficient to produce diuresis, when a cathartic effect is not desirable. The best form of exhibition is an infusion (3ss to boiling water Oj, or the same amount may be dissolved in gin Oj); dose, f3ij-iv three or four times a day.

TARAXACUM.

Taraxacum Dens-leonis, or Dandelion (Nat. Ord. Composite), is a small herbaceous, perennial plant, common to most parts of the world, and found abundantly throughout the United States.

It has a fusiform root, which sends up numerous long, sinuated, bright-green leaves, and flower-stems about six inches high, bearing golden-yellow flowers. The ROOT is the officinal portion, and should be gathered in the autumn. In the fresh state it is several inches long, branched, fleshy, of a light-brown color externally, whitish within, and abounds in a milky juice; the fresh root is preferable for use. When dried it is shrunken, wrinkled Boiling

and brittle. It is without smell, but has a bitter taste

water extracts its virtues, which probably depend on a peculiar

bitter crystallizable principle termed taraxacin, soluble in water and alcohol. It also contains taraxacerin, resin, and Dragendorff‍* found inulin and some sugar.

Effects and Uses.—Taraxacum is diuretic and slightly aperient, with some tonic action, and a slight determination to the liverIt is useful in hepatic dropsies, and is also employed in dyspepsia accompanied by derangement of the liver. It may be given in the form of infusion-dose, fžij t. d.; extract (an inspissated · juice, which should not be kept above a year)—dose, gr. xx-ɔ̃j t. d.; fluid extract—dose, fɔ̃j-ij t. d.

TRITICUM-COUCHGRASS.

The RHIZOME of Triticum repens or Couchgrass (Nat. Ord. Graminacea), a perennial weed, native of Europe and North America, growing in fields and in waste places, with a long, stiff, pale-yellow rhizome, which should be gathered in the spring, and is found in the shops, freed from the rootlets, cut into short. lengths and dried, without odor, but having a slightly sweetish taste (Flückiger and Hanbury), contains triticin (which resembles inulin), and several sugars, and appears to be a feeble diuretic. According to Sir H. Thompson,† couchgrass exercises a beneficial influence in cystitis. He directs the decoction to be made by boiling ij-iv in water Oij until reduced to Oj; the strained liquor to be taken in four doses in 24 hours. Whitla, too, advises it to allay irritation of the urinary passages. Fluid extract may be given in doses of fɔ̃ss-j.

JUNIPERUS JUNIPER.

The FRUIT or berries of Juniperus communis (Nat. Ord. Coniferæ), an evergreen European shrub, naturalized in the United States, are used as adjuvants to the more active diuretics, and in large doses produce strangury and bloody urine, and prove emmenagogue. When dried they are about the size of a pea, of a blackish-purple color and a sweetish, terebinthinate, aromatic taste; they are given in infusion. Their virtues depend on a volatile oil (OLEUM JUNIPERI) (C10H16), the dose of which is gtt.

* « Pharmacographia," 2d ed., p. 394, quoted.

"Diseases of the Urinary Organs," 7th edition, p. 152.

v-xv two or three times a day. Hammond* found that juniper increased the flow of urine, the proportion of solids being only slightly altered (three experiments). The compound spirit (containing also the oils of caraway and fennel, dissolved in alcohol and water) is a pleasant addition to stimulating diuretic and blennorrhetic combinations, and a good stomachic and carminative; dose, f3j-ij. The spirit is made by dissolving 3 parts of the oil in 97 parts of alcohol; dose, f5j-ij. An active diuretic mixture is: R Potassii bitartratis, 3ij; seminis juniperi, 3j; aquæ (tepid), Oiv. M. Sig. All to be taken in 24 hours.

SCOPARIUS.

Sarothamus Scoparius, or Broom (Nat. Ord. Leguminosa), is a common European shrub, cultivated in the United States, from three to five feet high, with numerous bright-yellow flowers. The TOPS of the branches are the officinal portion, but the seeds are also used. The twigs are pentangular (with small oblong, downy leaves), of a bright-green color, a strong, peculiar odor when bruised, and a bitter, nauseous taste. Two principles are found in broom-tops-scoparin (C2H22O10), a neutral, crystallizable body, supposed to be the diuretic constituent, and a volatile alkaloid, sparteine (C15H2N2), (vide p. 275); it also contains volatile oil, tannin, etc.

Effects and Uses.-Broom is an efficient diuretic, in large doses producing free purging. It is a valuable and reliable remedy in dropsy, best given in decoction, half an ounce to a pint of water, boiled down to half a pint, of which an ounce may be given every hour or two till the bowels are disturbed. A fluid extract is used in doses of fɔ̃ss-j.

CANTHARIS-CANTHARIDES.

The properties, etc., of cantharides will be noted fully under the head of Irritants (subdivision Epispastics). Taken internally, they sometimes prove diuretic, and generally excite irritation of the genito-urinary passages, as strangury, priapism, etc.; and in overdoses act as an acro-narcotic poison. They are employed in dropsies, incontinence of urine, amenorrhoea, seminal

*Amer. Journ. Med. Sci., 1859, p. 275.

weakness, impotence, etc. Dose, gr. j-ij twice a day, in pill. They are most commonly administered in tincture (5 per cent.); dose, gtt. x or more three or four times a day till signs of strangury supervene.

ORDER V.-BLENNORRHETICS.

Blennorrhetics (from Bitwa, mucus, and ¿éw, I flow) are medicines which promote the secretion of the mucous membranes. They are employed therapeutically in morbid conditions of those membranes, with a view to the restoration of healthy action in cases of deficient, abnormal or excessive secretion.

When administered with the object of stimulating the secretion of mucus from the bronchial or laryngeal membrane, this class of agents is termed expectorants. They are prescribed in the subacute and chronic forms of bronchitis and laryngitis, and in the declining stages of the acute forms of those affections and pneumonia. In the early or inflammatory stages of acute bronchitis and laryngitis the stimulating expectorants are inadmissible until expectoration has been established.

The blennorrhetics are less employed in gastro-enteric affections than in those of other mucous membranes, owing to their tendency to produce catharsis. Several of the oleo-resins are, however, used with advantage in certain forms of chronic diarrhoea, and the oil of turpentine is highly esteemed in the treatment of the diarrhoea of typhoid fever.

The oleo-resinous articles of this group are extensively employed in diseases of the urino-genital mucous membranesgonorrhoea, gleet, leucorrhoea, incontinence of urine and cystitis. The following are the articles chiefly resorted to for their influence on the mucous membranes:

SENEGA.

Polygala Senega, or Senega Snakeroot (Nat. Ord. Polygalaceæ), is a small indigenous plant, found in all parts of the United States, but most abundantly in the South and West. It has a perennial branching root, several erect annual stems about a foot in height, alternate lanceolate leaves, and small whitish flowers arranged in a terminal spike. The ROOT is the officinal portion. It occurs in